diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/bootstrap/Bootstrap.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/bootstrap/Bootstrap.java
index 74baa320d43..b871b4eb0b1 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/bootstrap/Bootstrap.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/bootstrap/Bootstrap.java
@@ -291,7 +291,7 @@ public class Bootstrap {
                 Loggers.enableConsoleLogging();
             }
             
-            throw e;
+            throw new StartupError(e);
         }
     }
 
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/bootstrap/StartupError.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/bootstrap/StartupError.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..ee24b4d119d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/bootstrap/StartupError.java
@@ -0,0 +1,118 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to Elasticsearch under one or more contributor
+ * license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright
+ * ownership. Elasticsearch licenses this file to you under
+ * the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
+ * not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.elasticsearch.bootstrap;
+
+import org.elasticsearch.common.inject.CreationException;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.inject.spi.Message;
+
+import java.io.PrintStream;
+
+/**
+ * Wraps an exception in a special way that it gets formatted
+ * "reasonably". This means limits on stacktrace frames and
+ * cleanup for guice, and some guidance about consulting full
+ * logs for the whole exception.
+ */
+//TODO: remove this when guice is removed, and exceptions are cleaned up
+//this is horrible, but its what we must do
+class StartupError extends RuntimeException {
+    
+    /** maximum length of a stacktrace, before we truncate it */
+    static final int STACKTRACE_LIMIT = 30;
+    /** all lines from this package are RLE-compressed */
+    static final String GUICE_PACKAGE = "org.elasticsearch.common.inject";
+    
+    /** 
+     * Create a new StartupError that will format {@code cause}
+     * to the console on failure.
+     */
+    StartupError(Throwable cause) {
+        super(cause);
+    }
+
+    /*
+     * This logic actually prints the exception to the console, its
+     * what is invoked by the JVM when we throw the exception from main()
+     */
+    @Override
+    public void printStackTrace(PrintStream s) {
+        Throwable originalCause = getCause();
+        Throwable cause = originalCause;
+        if (cause instanceof CreationException) {
+            cause = getFirstGuiceCause((CreationException)cause);
+        }
+        
+        String message = cause.getMessage();
+        if (message == null) {
+            message = "Unknown Error";
+        }
+        s.println(message);
+        
+        if (cause != null) {
+            // walk to the root cause
+            while (cause.getCause() != null) {
+                cause = cause.getCause();
+            }
+
+            // print the root cause message, only if it differs!
+            if (cause != originalCause && (message.equals(cause.toString()) == false)) {
+                s.println("Likely root cause: " + cause);
+            }
+
+            // print stacktrace of cause
+            StackTraceElement stack[] = cause.getStackTrace();
+            int linesWritten = 0;
+            for (int i = 0; i < stack.length; i++) {
+                if (linesWritten == STACKTRACE_LIMIT) {
+                    s.println("\t<<<truncated>>>");
+                    break;
+                }
+                String line = stack[i].toString();
+                
+                // skip past contiguous runs of this garbage:
+                if (line.startsWith(GUICE_PACKAGE)) {
+                    while (i + 1 < stack.length && stack[i + 1].toString().startsWith(GUICE_PACKAGE)) {
+                        i++;
+                    }
+                    s.println("\tat <<<guice>>>");
+                    linesWritten++;
+                    continue;
+                }
+
+                s.println("\tat " + line.toString());
+                linesWritten++;
+            }
+        }
+        s.println("Refer to the log for complete error details.");
+    }
+    
+    /** 
+     * Returns first cause from a guice error (it can have multiple).
+     */
+    static Throwable getFirstGuiceCause(CreationException guice) {
+        for (Message message : guice.getErrorMessages()) {
+            Throwable cause = message.getCause();
+            if (cause != null) {
+                return cause;
+            }
+        }
+        return guice; // we tried
+    }
+}